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Thursday, March 26, 2015

The curse on the waters off Pasir Ris

The waters off Pasir Ris seem destined to be cursed with massive fish kills now and then. Fish kills have been documented there for years! (See my previous posts on this topic.) The latest came as no surprise - Straits Times 1, 2; Today 3, 4; Channel News Asia (CNA) 5.

In response to an invitation from CNA to check out the waters there, a team of us headed down to the field for a quick water quality monitoring (WQM). It had been a week since the fish kill occurred so I was not expecting to see anything extraordinary in our WQM results. Nevertheless, it was a good chance to stretch those hands and legs on some good old field work.

Other than conducting field trips for my students as part of their curriculum, it has been some time since I have field work in WQM. For those following my blog, I had been involved in other aspects of water the past few years - rainwater harvesting, grey water recycling. Water is such a fascinating yet vast topic. It can cover indoors, outdoors, natural, industrial, agricultural, household, economics, political, war and many other areas besides.

Back to Pasir Ris... On 10 Mar 2015, we did WQ tests at 2 spots at Pasir Ris and 1 spot at Punggol for reference. Here is a summary of the results.

The number above may appear intimidating but worry not, below is a description in plain English.

Overall, the water quality
looked pretty good for all 3 locations. A few points:

1.The water at Pasir Ris has become
somewhat saltier compared to my data in 2010.

2.The water has also
become somewhat more alkaline compared to my data in 2010.

3.The water is
significantly clearer (less turbid) compared to 2010. Less construction work
going on?

4.Nutrients (ammonia,
nitrate, phosphate) are significantly less compared to 2010.

5.Bacterial counts are
significantly less compared to 2010. Can we all swim there now?

6.Pasir Ris spot 1
appeared to have a slightly higher bacterial count compared to the other 2
locations. FYI, spot 1 is where a great deal of dead fish were washed up the previous week.

Don't forget, about a week has passed since the fish kill. Don't expect to see problems in the water quality during our field trip or we will still be seeing dead fish on the shores for the entire week - a scary thought.

Figure: WQM team at work at Pasir Ris

Figure: The cozy CNA van that brought us and our equipment around our test sites

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I generally reply to an email query in a blog post if I feel it will benefit other readers. If for some reason, you would like a private reply, please state so in your query.

I am currently lecturing on environmental science in Singapore Polytechnic. Always exploring new ways to bring experiential learning into the classroom, I endeavour to work with 3 guiding principles.
1. Adventure - physical, intellectual or both
2. Conservation of nature
3. Educational value

I am passionate about all things water. Professionally, I have worked on various water quality projects with Nparks and PUB and published the book, “Your First Guide to Water Quality Monitoring in Singapore” in collaboration with PUB.